Swimming Lessons for Justice

Justice has gotten very comfortable in the pool, and it’s been so fun to teach him how to swim! He gets a lot of practice in the hotel swimming pools on the weekends! About a week ago I got to take him to his first outdoor pool (other than the one at the hotel in Ghana). Of course, the first thing he wanted to try was to go down the big slide! I was a little leery, but I decided to let him since the slide only spits out into 3’6” deep water….so I knew he could stand when he landed.

Of course he LOVED it! His favorite part of the pool though, had to be the lily pad course. He probably spent at least an hour going on it over and over and over again!

The main thing we haven’t been able to teach Justice is how to swim in water that is deeper than his height….he is very fearful of even heading in the direction of the deep end. For that reason he started in swimming lessons this week. If you live in Iowa, you know that the past two days have been FREEZING! I have felt so bad for him having to jump in that water at 9:30am with it being 60 degrees outside, cloudy, and windy! Jayla and I are literally sitting there watching him in our sweatshirts! But, he has done so well. He had to start in the Level 1 class because they said he needed to be able to do a front float and a back float to start in Level 2. After 5 minutes of me trying to persuade them at sign ups that he could do everything except a back float, they still decided that he needed to be in Level 1. So, once again, there he was, bigger than everyone in his class, but thankfully he’s gotten used to that by now!

The pool. ............................................................................

Introductions with his teacher...........................................

Warming up.......................................................................

Meanwhile, little Miss Jayla was NOT happy. She wanted to get in the water but when I told her this was only a time for Justice to swim she gave me the silent treatment. :)

But, because little girls just have a way of, well, getting their way, I let her stick her little toesies in the water.

And then she was happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(By the way, if you’re wondering where JJ is in all of these pictures, he was at basketball camp! I will be posting on his life as a gym rat soon!)

Swimming lessons went on, and the kids were having so much fun learning all their skills.

And then, guess what? At the end of the day’s lesson Justice’s teacher had him try a back float and……..he executed it pretty well! Thankfully they moved him up to Level 2 right on the spot! So, at the next day's lesson he was with kids a little closer to his age….

And he got to work on some more challenging skills…..like perfecting his back float….

And learning the front crawl (this was the one thing he really wanted to learn how to do)!

Of course new experiences for Justice never come without questions. :) This is what he would like to know: “Mommy, a few weeks ago when we came to look at the pool it was empty. But now it is full of water. So how do they empty all that water out? And where does it go?”

Good question! He’s always thinkin!